mike wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 12:19 pm
Sudsy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 12:00 pm
Agree so in case my previous paragraph was overlooked -
Back to the pros and cons. I love the ability to select teachers online over TV and radio. That is a pro for me. However, it doesn't provide fellowship with other believers. The Internet with these forums though does even if it is not face to face. Currently, these forums is my fellowship and compared to the fellowship I was having attending a local church, it provides more conversation on spiritual things. Sometimes trying to discuss spiritual things with church going folk at church doesn't go over well. The fellowship is mostly focused on much of the same things the world takes interest in - the job, politics, raising a family, vacations, etc.
I saw it, and that response is useful for this discussion I think.
For those wanting good content to listen to, sermons posted online are definitely a help. And that would be one of the reasons for churches to post at least some content online. However, I think that church is about far more than just going in to listen to a sermon and then going back home. If that's all it is about, then yes, we may as well just stay home and listen or watch sermons instead.
But church is about community and living life together. And yes, that includes both secular and sacred. That's why it's perfectly fine in my opinion to get together with other believers and talk about topics like our jobs and families and vacations as well as spiritual topics. The church is a real community of people, not a bunch of viewers in front of a screen or a guy at the podium.
In my experiences, in 5 different Christian fellowships, there was quite a range of interaction between believers that were part of the local church. I attended a Baptist church for a couple years and the conversations with other believers was heavy on the secular and light on the sacred. Not much fellowshipping during the week. It was almost like turning off a switch once the sermon was over and conversation went almost entirely secular.
The other extreme, that I really enjoyed, was another Baptist church that got revived and there was so much excitement about what God was doing as many were being saved and needing feeding that the secular had little conversation or interest. Home bible studies sprang up and after the study period the conversations were often about soul winning experiences we were having and who had just became a new Christian. The church grew from a 'frozen few' to a packed out, on fire, many. We had close community relationship throughout the week to try to keep up with what God was doing.
My Salvation Army experience was more on the spiritual side also and community was focused around doing good deeds and reaching the lost. Not much interest in secular stuff. Very little conversation outside of mission work and they didn't let you sit around but kept us involved.
I don't think there is anything wrong with many secular conversations but, to me, it reflects just where the primary interests lie in the life of a believer. When Christians are really keen on their spiritual life and seeing others come to know the Lord, secular interests just seem to fall off. There is just too much going on spiritually to be quiet about. I was raised in a family where a high percentage of our Christian community interest was on spiritual things. Yes, we had secular conversations and activities but this was not what primarily interested us. We had more of a 'pilgrim passing through' and a 'this world is not my home' attitude. I miss those days.
I agree the church is a community of people, a community that is keen on reaching the lost and growing in the Lord. Not a group of professing Christians sitting around and arguing doctrine and constantly forming new communities from existing believers trying to have everyone believing exactly the same. These communities are like the Laodicean church. They have lost their first love for Christ and for the unsaved.